


Proof Tony Stark Has A Heart

by youwannabekate



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Afghanistan, Angst, Arc Reactor, Arc Reactor Failure, Bromance, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Gratuitous amounts of Bromance, Humor, Hurt Tony, Hurt/Comfort, Natasha is BAMF and Clint loves it, PTSD, Serious Injuries, Steve loves his shield, Team Bonding, Team Feels, Thor misses his brother, Tony centric, have you noticed?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2014-03-31
Packaged: 2017-12-09 13:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/774619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youwannabekate/pseuds/youwannabekate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is a jerk. He is the one member of the Avengers with the ability to drive them all insane.Simultaneously. The rest of the team thinks of him as a necessary annoyance, but when the Arc Reactor begins to fail, and some demons from his past come back to haunt him, the Team see how much they all truly care for him. Tony!Whump and Protective!Team. Rated T for some disturbing flashbacks and Tony's filthy potty mouth. Mentions Pepperony, Thane and Clintasha.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Intro to Tony

It was a normal day in Stark Tower.

Scratch that; it was a normal day for _them_ in Stark Tower. Nothing was ever really normal anymore. The current residents of the tower were as follows: a time warped Super-soldier who didn’t know his way around a toaster, a world class spy who had fifteen different ways to kill you mapped out before she reached for her coffee, another world class spy who made Katniss Everdeen look like a girl scout, a brilliant scientist who happened to have a rage monster of death lurking under his skin, a Norse god with family issues, and a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist with a Glo-stick stuck to his chest. Perfect roomies.

After the incident with Loki and the near destruction of Manhattan, the rest of the Avengers had (somewhat reluctantly) moved in with Tony Stark, and with all the super-sized personalities around here, there was bound to be some tension. Most of which revolved around Tony.

Steve had long ago come to the conclusion that Tony’s “super-power” wasn’t the Iron Man suit, and it wasn’t his complete genius. It was his inane ability to make anyone lose their minds. Nick Fury better be OK with being one teammate down next time the Avengers were called upon because Steve wasn’t too sure that Tony was going to make it. Like right now. 

Steve let out a long-suffering sigh, and moved from the kitchen and his newspaper, to the lavish living room, where the billionaire in question was pressed down into the carpet, arms twisted behind his back, with an irate Black Widow pinning him down, spewing curses in Russian. Clint was almost falling off the couch with laughter as his woman systematically took down the Iron Man. Between Tony’s yelps of pain, Natasha’s snarls, and Clint’s howls of mirth, Steve felt a headache build behind his eyes. “Stop it!” he ordered shortly.

Natasha glared up at him, and slowly let go of Tony, who stood quickly rolling his shoulders. “Thanks Capsicle.”

Steve shot him a look. “What is going on here?”

“I am one-hundred percent victim here, Cap!  She just jumped me!”

Natasha swore again and made to dive at him, but Steve blocked her path. He looked from the furious Natasha to Clint who was wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, bow lying forgotten next to him. “Clint?” Steve asked.

“All I know is, I was working on my bow, Tony slapped Natasha’s ass, and Tony was on the ground.” He hooted again at the look on Tony’s face.

Steve sighed. It was going to be one of those days.


	2. Science Bro's Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony suffers some significant pain from the Arc Reactor, and he tell's Bruce what's up.

Tony was in his workshop/lab/place-of-creation when it happened again. A small bolt of _something_ shot from his chest to the rest of his body like….well the only thing that he could compare it to was when Pepper touched the edge of the Reactor housing with the copper wire. So in short, it hurt. A lot. He tucked his chin into his chest and stared down at the steady glow of what was keeping him alive. It looked normal, but appearances can be deceiving. Hell, take Bruce Banner for example. He is the _last_ guy you would peg for having a mean green rage machine living under his skin.

He blew out a long breath when he thought of Bruce. That man was quickly becoming his best friend. Bruce could hold an intelligent conversation, Tony could bounce ideas off of him, and he never got mad (thank God) at Tony’s rather biting sense of humor. Tony could _talk_ to the man.  But, even after all that Bruce had done to earn Tony’s trust, Bruce still knew next to nothing about the Arc Reactor. He knew it was keeping Tony alive, and that it powered the Iron Man suit, and that letting the light go out was a _very bad thing_ , but other than that, nothing. Tony needed to tell the rest of the team, he knew that, but he really didn’t want to. All of the other Avengers had something that made them stronger, even Bruce will admit that the Other Guy is an asset to the team, but Tony had a _friggin’ pacemaker_. He couldn’t face the looks of pity from them, especially Captain Underpants.

A bolt of fire ran through his chest again, stronger this time, and he gasped. _Fuck_. He could feel his heart jolt a tiny bit, and it was NOT GOOD. Now he was just angry. Couldn’t the damn thing give him a break? “JARVIS, run full scan. I want heartbeat, blood pressure, the works. Also check the Reactor for deficiencies.”

“Running diagnostics now, Sir.”

“Thanks, JARV. Butterfingers, hand me the thingy on the- not that- the oth- dammit, that one!” The robot meekly gave him the miniscule screwdriver he asked for, and then peeked over Tony’s shoulder as if to see what he was working on. Tony moved the joint of the Mark VI boot, feeling it flex smoothly, but then with a little catch near the end of the range of motion. He began to work again, with a happier heart. This was something he could tackle, touch, see the problems, and fix them. It was good that he had something that he could _fix_. JARVIS pinged on again soon after he reassembled the ankle of the suit “Sir, diagnostics are finished.”

“Talk to me. What did you find?”

“The Arc Reactor is functioning normally, at 87% capacity. You have elevated heartbeat, blood pressure 86 over 53. Temperature is normal; the slight perspiration is psychological in origin.”

Sigh. “Alright JARVIS. Keep track of all my vital signs for today. I want a record if it happens again. Call Bruce, see if he’s busy.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tony started to clean the mess of red and gold armor and shiny instruments off of his desk. JARVIS spoke again, “Dr. Banner is heading to the lab now, Sir.”

“Thank you JARVIS. Tell him it’s no hurry.” JARVIS agreed again, and pinged off. Tony went to the small kitchen he had set up in the lab, and made one cup of coffee for him, and a cup of Bruce’s favorite Earl Grey tea. The doors to the lab _swooshed_ open as Bruce walked in. He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes, his button down rumpled like he slept in it, and hair a bit tousled. “How can I help you Tony?” he smiled at the billionaire’s back, frowned a little bit at the green Hulk mug that Tony pressed into his hand.

Tony smirked at the look on the physicist’s face. “Just wanted to talk for a while. Maybe you could look at the designs for the Mark VII?” The pair of brilliant minds settled down in chairs nursing their respective mugs for a long quiet moment. Bruce set his tea down and grabbed the Mark VI’s left gauntlet, flexing the joints and rotating the wrist. “I don’t think that’s all you wanted.”

“How could you tell?”

“I’m good at reading people.” they sat in easy silence for a while, waiting for Tony to speak up.

“What do you know about my Arc Reactor?”

oOo

A good hour later, Bruce sat back in his chair and ran a hand through his dark hair. “Wow. That technology…I just can’t believe you built it in a cave. How did you implant it? What kind of medical equipment did they have? Antibiotics? Anesthesia?”

Tony’s face tightened at the memories that were coming back. _“Hold him down!” Saw buzzing. Men shouting in languages. Hands all over him. Then, pain. Pain. PAIN!_ _STOP PLEASE!_ —He shook his head sending those memories back to the dark corner of his mind where they belonged. “They didn’t have any of that, doc. They put it in when I was awake.”

Bruce’s eyes flashed green and he put a hand over his face as he shuddered and tried to control his anger. Tony set empty Iron Man mug down carefully, and reached toward Bruce “Hey, big guy. You OK?”

Bruce took a long breath and let it out, his eyes returning to their normal brown. “I’m fine, Tony. But you aren’t. I can see it now. PTSD?”

Tony hesitated, and then said, “Yeah, it was kinda rough for the first couple of months. Pepper was great. She’s the only reason I was able to function. Still don’t like water though.”

“Water?” Bruce asked, “Why would water bother you?”

_Shit,_ Tony thought, _said too much. Well, might as well bare your whole soul. Dumbass._ “Uh…yeah, see they wanted me to build them some Jericho missiles. I didn’t. Cue waterboarding.” Tony tried to talk calmly, with his trademark flippant tone, but the memories were coming back. _Stop- can’t breath- gonna die- Help! Yinsen! Please HELP ME! STOP!_

Bruce was shuddering again. He fought back the Other Guy, who was rearing to go _destroy_ anyone who wanted to do that to his friend. After a long tense moment, he calmed and regained control of himself. Tenuous control, but control nonetheless. “I see. So why are you telling me all of this? I appreciate it, don’t get me wrong. But why?”

“Well, I almost died when…Obie stole the reactor. I need someone who knows about it, and could replace it if I was, like, unconscious or something. Pepper used to help me out, but she’s not going to be there on missions.”

Bruce nodded. “Smart. But what if I’m…not there at the moment?”

“You mean all Hulked out?” At Bruce’s look he sighed, “Good point. I’m going to talk to the rest of the team about it, I just don— _FUCK!_ ” Tony swore and grabbed at his chest, curling in on himself in a futile attempt to protect himself. The fire was racing again and it was worse this time. He heard Bruce rush over, shaking his shoulder, yelling “Tony? TONY? What is it?” Tony drew in a long breath as the fire abated, and gasped out “Fine- m’fine. Just- give me- second.” He uncurled from the ball he was in, and gave Bruce a snarky smile. “See? Completely fine.”

Bruce’s eyes were frantic, “What the hell was that, Tony? Is it the reactor? Do I need to get a new one?”

“No! No, my reactor’s working, but…”

Bruce crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. “But what?”

“This just started happening today. This was the third time. I don’t- I have no idea what’s causing this thing. It just-”

Bruce cut him off before Tony could really start to ramble, which was a sure sign he was upset. “Whatever it is, we’ll find it and fix it.” Pictures of Tony with a car battery hooked up to his chest, Tony being tortured, Tony gasping with no reactor because Obadiah took it, Tony being poisoned by the thing keeping him alive flashed through his head, and he had to calm down again. It would do Tony no good to have the Other Guy make an appearance in his lab.

Tony gave Bruce a relieved smile, “Thanks, Bruce.” Then Tony smirked “Now get out of my lab. I have things of _importance_ to get done today, thanks.”

Bruce rolled his eyes. Same old Tony. Annoying-as-hell Tony. “OK, just make sure you come up for dinner tonight. Thor and Jane are coming over, so the whole team will be here.” Bruce left the lab, after giving Dum-E and Butterfingers pats on their robotic arms. _I hope._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who gave me Kudos! I'm so excited that this story is getting some love. If you like it, visit my page on FanFic.Net, my username is the same. 
> 
> I was Googleing pictures of Bruce for research and this popped up on Google. Lookit. Giggle. It’s totally worth the three seconds, and it completely sums up the ScienceBros. 
> 
> http://rebloggy.com/post/spoilers-tony-stark-the-avengers-bruce-banner-just-in-case-the-avengers-spoilers/22573998143


	3. Fanfiction and Flashbacks

_I really need to tell them_ , Tony thought, _and I'm going to, just not right now…_

The team was all in the living room of the now-dubbed Avengers Tower. Thor was on the carpet with Jane, and they were watching some sappy Lifetime movie, with Thor asking very odd questions at very inappropriate moments in his booming voice. Clint and Natasha were cuddled up in a loveseat, not paying attention to anyone else, whispering quietly to each other. Bruce was in the big recliner, reading the paper. Steve was sitting with his back to the huge windows, getting the perfect light for whatever it was that he was drawing with such single-minded concentration. Tony was monopolizing the large leather couch, StarkPad in hand, browsing the internet.

He looked at the team that he had grown so close to over the past few months. Nothing is as good for bonding like battling inter-dimensional god, and his horde of destruction, who happens to be the beloved baby brother of the God of Thunder lying on your rug. Tony felt closer to this rag-tag bunch of science projects than he did his own blood family. You would never get him to admit it out loud, but he…loved them. In a purely non-sexual, _very_ platonic, brotherly type fashion. That kind of love. Sort of.

Tony shook his head and gave up trying to make his thoughts for them make sense, and instead did his customary Google search of his name, then the words _Iron Man_ , then the rest of the team. This time however, he accidentally Googled their names _together_ , with interesting results. He read for a moment, and then jumped up and rushed to the lab to get a better screen.

The rest of the team jumped at his sudden flight from the living room. "What was that about?" Steve asked.

Clint detangled himself from Natasha long enough to say, "I don't know. He was just poking around on that pad of his, and he sat up looking at the thing with his eyes bugging out of his head. And then he ran for the lab."

Bruce tensed in fear. _Was—that—happening again?_ He stood up, leaving his paper abandoned, and made for the lab with quick, purposeful steps. Steve and the rest of the team looked after Bruce, and then exchanged confused looks. "What is wrong with the Man of Iron?" Thor boomed from his position on the floor.

Steve shook off these strange actions, "Bruce is probably making sure Tony doesn't kill himself down there. God knows he spends more time in that lab…" Steve went back to drawing. It was a sketch of Tony in the Iron Man suit during their last fight. The charcoal was slowly resolving itself to reveal the Iron Man, crouched on a pile of rubble hands extended, with thrusters glowing brightly to match the glow in the center of his chest.

oOo

Bruce tapped in the keypad for the lab door that obligingly opened with a _swoosh_ , and he scanned the room anxiously for Tony. Fear gripped his heart as he saw Tony sitting in one of the chairs, slouched over the desk like he had passed out. Bruce quickly made his was to Tony's side, where he could see Tony's shoulder's shake, as if with huge sobs. The scientist laid a gentle hand on the inventor's shoulder, shaking it a bit. "Tony? You OK?" Tony looked up and Bruce had to roll his eyes. Tony was shaking with _laughter_ , and he was laughing so hard tears were forming in his eyes. He sucked in a hard breath, and began to howl with mirth. Bruce frowned at the billionaire who was doing a lovely hyena impression. "Idiot. I thought you were dying down here."

"Sorry, doc. But this- this is- so- goddamn- _funny_!"Tony began to laugh in earnest again.

"What?" Bruce asked. "What in the name of all creation is _that_ funny?"

"It's called Fanficton, my green, emotionally repressed friend. And I'm going to introduce the team to it." Tony swept up to the living room again, leaving Bruce bewildered, blinking hard at the change of pace, and following the billionaire out of the lab.

oOo

Tony strode imperiously into the living room, "Ladies, gentlemen, gods, and variations thereupon, I have an announcement. We are officially famous."

All the eyes in the room had flicked to Tony, standing in the middle of the room with head held high and computer in hand. They all stared at him for a second, glanced at each other and then turned back to what they were doing. Tony seemed a bit miffed that his announcement had not garnered the response he was looking for. "No, guys seriously, we are official now! We have a following and everything! Look, we have _fanfiction_!"

Steve glanced around at the room, expecting to be the only one (besides Thor) confused as usual, but everyone else seemed to be just as lost as he was. "Alright. I'll bite. What is fanfiction?" he asked in a bored tone, but in truth he was genuinely curious. The things in this century—millennium—never ceased to amaze him, if it did scare him at times. JARVIS terrified him on his first visit to the Tower.

"Fanfiction, my good captain, is a piece of amateur writing that focuses on the works of a book, movie, or something like that. Apparently, we are so big that we have fanfiction too!"

Thor's forehead crinkled in confusion. "This is a Midgardian honor, is it not? Then we must CELEBRATE OUR TRIUMPH!" he boomed out in his ridiculously loud manner.

"Inside voices, thunder boy, but yeah it's pretty cool. Also…" Tony tapped on his StarkPad again, having sufficiently captured everyone's interest, "there's this genre, called slash, where you ship two characters together, (ship meaning pair for a relationship, geddit?) so the story is a _CharacterA-_ slash _-CharacterB_ story, hence the name slash. Now, a bit more background, when you _ship_ two people you combine their names. Like…" Tony glanced down at the pad again, "BLACKHAWK! Guess which ones that is! Guess! BlackWidow and HawkEye! I prefer BlackEye, myself, but hey…." The couple looked at each other from the loveseat they were tangled together in like a pair of pretzels, and snorted at Tony's less-than-perfect ship name. But Tony wasn't done there!

"Ohh, here's another one, it's a Stanner!" Bruce looked up at Tony horrified as Tony continued to read, "Which is obviously a Steve and Banner cross." Bruce and Steve were both stuttering their denials of that ship, with Steve being a darker red than the paint on his Spandex. Tony kept on. "Here's the summary for this one, it's called 'A Push in the Right Direction. _Ahem_ , _'Steve and Bruce were more alike than they realized…now they come to realize this…"_ Bruce buried his face in his hands as Steve blew up like a puffer fish with indignation.

"Now you just wait, they can't just wr-" Everyone else in the room thought this was hilarious, save Thor, who was still a bit confused.

"Bruce, Steve! Why did you not inform us of your companionship? 'Tis cause for celebration!"

"It's not real, Thor," Bruce replied, slightly muffled because he was still hiding his face, "It's fi-"

"And another! This is a CaptianThunder!" Tony read gleefully as Steve began to grow irate, and Thor to again look confused.

"This is proclaiming that I have a romance with our Captain? Nay, for my heart is for the Lady Jane only!"

"This is ridiculous! I'm sure I could talk to Fury and get him to remove this… _filth._ "

Tony raised an eyebrow, "Oh, Spangles, you haven't heard the worst of it yet! This one is called 'How We Do It on Asgard.' And I quote _"…Thor spoke, his face beginning to move in closer to Steve, strong arms on either side of the Captain's body…"_

"I COMMITTED NO SUCH ACTS! HOW DARE THEY MAKE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST ALMIGHTY THOR?" Thor bellowed, Mjolnir suddenly in his hand.

Jane stifled her laughter at her boyfriend and began to placate him gently, "No one said you did, sweetie."

"BUT THE-"

Jane placed a hand on his arm, bringing it and Mjolnir down, "It's just people writing stories, that's all. I trust you." Thor acquiesced, but still grumbled.

Tony was getting more fun out of this than he thought, "Here's another BlackHawk, Blackeye, whatever. It's called 'Free Show'." The couple looked at each other again, with a bit more trepidation.

"The summary reads as follows: 'Natasha has taken to wearing as little clothes as possible around the Avengers' mansion and everyone has noticed. Everyone that is, except for Clint'."

Natasha growled at that portrayal of her, but Tony kept on again, "Oh there's quite a bit about me too…Stony! Steve and Tony, or… _Superhusbands?_ No, I much rather prefer Stony." At the murderous glance Steve sent his way, he made a wise decision, "OK, moving on, what about…ScienceBros! Tony and Bruce, cause we're smart! Here we have IronThunder, IronFrost… _Loki?_ No way. Aww lookit the 'Stark Spangled Banner.' They've got all three of us, ain't it sweet…Ohh my personal favorite, _the IronWIDOW!_ " Tony leered at Natasha for a second. "Hey, wanna try that out?"

Natasha had had enough. She sprang up from the loveseat with amazing dexterity. Tony only had enough warning to toss the StarkPad to safety before the growling ex-assassin was on top of him. He fell backwards onto the soft carpet with no injury, except that all the breath in lungs left his body with a loud _Oomph!_ She pinned him, not like a few days ago, but on his back, with his arms spread out on either side of him. Her hands on his biceps, she shoved him into the ground, snarling obscenities at him in every language she knew, including Arabic. As her knees settled on his chest to hold him firmly in place, the now-familiar burn laced through him. That's when the shit hit the fan.

_He was no longer in his airy open living room; he was in a dank, suffocating cave in Afghanistan. He could feel the pain of the shrapnel, his arms held to the side with leather cuffs that bit into his skin. He could hear people shouting in Arabic, and the saw as it made its decent to tear open his chest._

_Pinned. They got me, how did they get me again?! No! No, I won't! Is that Natasha? What is she doing here? Tash, HELP ME! TASH, RUN! DON'T LET THEM GET YOU TASH! NO PLEASE NO MAKE IT STOP THE PAIN STOP STOP STOP I'LL BUILD IT PLEASEPLEASE OHGODSTOPITPLEASE!_

_The pain overwhelmed him and his world faded into blackness._

oOo

Bruce was not feeling very charitable toward Tony at the moment. He was standing, whole and fit, in the middle of the room, embarrassing the whole team so badly that the Other Guy would have blushed. When Natasha flew at Tony like an enraged cat, spitting and everything, Bruce was firmly on Agent Romanov's side. _Let him have his comeuppance. Scares the crap out of me, then, what's the word,_ ships _me with Steve!_

The scientist watched saw the whole thing. Saw Tony's eyes widen as if to say _Shit I'm in for it_ , then the true fear, then grimacing in real pain, all of that in a flash, just a second and the whole thing had changed. Tony had begun to writhe beneath Natasha in a way that was purely instinctual, fueled by adrenalin, and much stronger than Natasha had expected. His bucking and flailing, then screaming, had the entire team thrown for a loop.

"NO! PLEASE! NO! I'LL BUILD IT I SWEAR JUST STOP! STOP IT! _YINSEN! HELP ME! PEASE! NOOO!"_

Bruce flew to Tony's side, yelling in his I'm-about-to-Hulk-so-back-off-voice to give Tony some room, and cradled his head as Tony thrashed. His cries were becoming worse, so Bruce tried to calm him, "Shh, Tony, Tony, you're in New York, in the Tower, you're safe, shhh, Tony," he rambled on. Then Bruce's stomach dropped to the ground floor.

Through the thin material of his white wife beater, the whole team could see the glow of the Arc Reactor flicker.

Tony eventually grew still; the billionaire slumped over Bruce's lap. The room was perfectly silent. Bruce broke the silence, "JARVIS!"

"Yes Dr. Banner?"

"Run a medical scan on Tony."

"I have been following and recording Sir's vital signs all day today, per the request of Sir."

"Thank you JARVIS. Steve, help me pick him up." Steve rushed over to pick up the legs of the limp man, who looked much smaller now. The battle hardened Captain was pale. "Wha-," he cleared his throat, "What was that?" They gently placed Tony down on the couch.

Bruce pressed his fingers into Tony's wrist, marking the racing heartbeat, before answering. "I can't tell you all the information. Tony only told me the whole story yesterday, and I'm not going to repeat it without his permission. It's his story to tell. I can tell you, though, that he's been having these...attacks, for lack of a better word, from the Arc Reactor for a while, and this was a combination of that and a... PTSD induced flashback." At Steve's blank look, he amended, "Shellshock."

Steve frowned. What the hell could have given Tony shellshock? Why was Tony sick? "Is he going to be alright?"

A nod from Bruce sent relieved sighs echoing around the room, where people had been holding their breaths. "He'll be out for a while, catching up on lost sleep, and then he'll wake up, just fine."

Steve sat again and crossed his arms. "We'll wait then."

oOo

Tony felt like hell. His chest ached, and his entire body felt slightly sore. A bright light was cutting through his eyelids, forcing him awake. He dragged his eyes open and pushed himself into a sitting position on the couch. _Couch? The hell am I sitting here for?_ Then, memories of what happened raced through his mind. He shook his head to dispel the darker pictures, and looked around. His eyes met six worried, confused pairs of eyes. The eyes of his team. _Well, Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off. I'm soooo sorry that ya'll had to wait for so long. I'm cross posting this from FF.Net, (but I'm changing a few things this time around, and I like this better) and I completely forgot that I had this up here. *hides face in shame*  
> But can we appreciate for a moment that Quoth gave me a comment?! I LOVE QUOTH.  
> If you haven't read Quoth's story "Heavy," go. Read it now. Bask in perfection.  
> QUOTH YOU HAVE MADE MY WHOLE DAY. 
> 
> Comments are love and bookmarks are better!


	4. Storytime, Ladies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony mans up and has the conversation we've all been waiting for. And he's really dramatic about it.   
> Steve is not good under pressure.   
> Bruce gets naked. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Previously…

Tony felt like hell. His chest ached, and his entire body felt slightly sore. A bright light was cutting through his eyelids, forcing him awake. He dragged his eyes open and pushed himself into a sitting position on the couch. Couch? The hell am I sitting here for? Then, memories of what happened raced through his mind. He shook his head to dispel the darker pictures, and looked around. His eyes met six worried, confused pairs of eyes. The eyes of his team. Well, Shit.

oOo

Steve was terrified. He didn't show it, because soldiers weren't supposed to show fear, but he was scared for Tony, scared out of his mind. In Steve's head, he was the leader, so he was supposed to lay down on the wire, take the pain, make the hard decisions, and most of all protect his team, no matter the cost. A small rational part of him knew that there was no way he could have known, nothing he could have done, but the overwhelming majority of him was swallowed by guilt. Tony wasn't supposed to be pale and still, with remnants of pain still ghosting over his face. Tony was supposed to be loud and obnoxious. Tony was supposed to be a constant. An annoying, self-loving, idiotic, genius constant.

When Tony stirred and squeezed his eyes tight with a grimace and groan, the fear lanced up again. The whole team, already quiet, became completely silent as they waited for Tony to wake up. The genius in question struggled to his elbows and blearily looked around the room. "Well. That hasn't happened for a while."

Steve couldn't take it anymore "The hell, Tony?" he blurted, "What was that?"

"That was a flashback, Captain. That's F-L-A-"

"I know what a flashback is," Steve snapped, "What I want to know is why you had one? Who is Yinsen? As your team, we do need to know these things."

Tony's face darkened like he was going to argue, but then he thought better of it and flopped back down onto the cushions. "You're right, Cap." Steve looked taken aback at the lack of fight from the usually contrary Tony. "I was meaning to tell you guys anyway. But stuff happened, and, yeah…so. You guys got anything pressing on your planners for a few hours because I really don't feel like repeating myself."

Jane looked around awkwardly. She felt this was a team discussion, and didn't want to intrude. "Darcy and I are going to meet up and go shopping. I, uh, better get going." She kissed Thor on the cheek, and then hesitantly turned to Tony. "You take care of yourself, OK?" She blushed as she left the room.

Tony sat up again and crossed his legs beneath him. "Gather 'round, ladies, its story time!" Everyone else rolled their eyes at Tony, but moved in closer to give him support in the manner of undivided attention. 

"A few years ago," Tony began, "I was a real dick."

Clint snorted. "We already knew that, Iron Ass."

Tony shot him a look. "No, I mean it. Stark Industries made weapons, and weapons only. Well, we said we made other stuff, and we did, kinda, but it was just for publicity. So, weapons. I didn't care how they were used, as long as it was Americans doing the shooting. I went to Afghanistan in '08 to do a bit of demonstration of my new Jericho missile. It was mostly a shock-and-awe type thing, trying to scare the locals. But then it all went—wrong. I remember talking to a soldier, a kid, really, he must have been twenty, max. I took a picture with him. Then—bullets, bombs. A terrorist group called the Ten Rings got a hold of some of the less devestating missiles in my arsenal and blew some up, trying to get at me. Capture, I mean. Not kill. I was so stupid, I left the Humvee, and I saw one of my own bombs, my bomb, and it blew up in my face. I got a chest full of shrapnel, and no medical attention. Most of the team died that day. That kid? He's dead. Then it just got worse."

Bruce got up and began to pace, doing anger management exercises in his head. It's over, no need to get angry. Steve, Thor, and Clint looked horrified. They had no idea. Natasha knew the basics, from being undercover as his PA, but all she knew was that he was held hostage and rescued a few months later with PTSD and a fractured arm.

Tony barreled on with the story, reluctant to stop once he had started. "After that, I really don't remember too many details. I remember being carried, I remember a cave, then…just being strapped down, people yelling, a saw, and then…well you can imagine the rest. I woke up the next day with a metal hole in my chest connecting me to a car battery."

Steve felt nauseous. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "You were awake?"

"Yep," Tony said.

Thor looked murderous. "I will DESTROY those who hurt Tony!"

"That's OK, thunder, I took care of it." Tony said. They sat in silence taking in that statement for a second, before Clint dragged them back to topic.

"But why?" Clint asked. "Why even attach you to a battery in the first place?"

"I have about nine or ten large pieces of shrapnel in my chest that they couldn't reach, stuck in my chest cavity and lungs. It's impossible to remove them with surgery. The idea of this thing is to use an electromagnetic pulse to attract the metal away from my heart, to the housing, but only enought to keep them still. Without it, they would have traveled to my heart and I would have been dead within twelve hours. As it was, the car battery wasn't powerful enough. The pieces were still moving, but really slowly. It wouldn't do the trick. I had a week. Yinsen called it 'the most important week of my life'."

Natasha spoke up. "You called for this –Yinsen, when you were…remembering. Who is he?"

Tony sighed, deepest grief on his face. "Was he, Tash. He's dead." The rest of the team murmured awkward condolences, but Tony waved them off. "It's fine. I'm fine. To answer your question, Yinsen was a doctor who was in captivity with me. They gave him the order to keep me alive, or else, and he came up with this ingenious idea. He implanted the original housing. He kept me alive long enough to create the first Arc Reactor."

Everyone's eyes widened. Steve was the first one to recover. "Y-you made that in captivity? With what?"

"Um," Tony had to think about it for a minute, "What tools they had for me, the guts of about a dozen bombs, and some scraps they had. You can be impressed. Oh, hold on, JARVIS?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Bring me Pepper's gift. You know the one."

"Very well sir." DUM-E trundled into the room after a moment, glass box in his robotic hand. "Thanks DUM-E. This, my friends is that first reactor. Pepper got it mounted for me."

Tony set it down on the glass table, and they picked it up and looked at it in turn. They could tell a difference. It was bulkier, less sleek, with wires that poked out in various places. A bronze plate on the base read Proof that Tony Stark Has a Heart. Steve saw the technology, but didn't really have the background to appreciate it. All he could see was how long the thing was, and how deep it must have sunk into Tony's chest. At least a good four inches.

Thor's forehead crinkled again. "As impressive as this craftsmanship is, I do not understand. Why were they holding you, Friend Tony? Why not kill you like in honest battle?"

Tony gave the Asgardian a wry smile. "These people aren't really the type for honest battle. They sneak and kill in the night. I was no warrior, I was a rich kid with an MIT degree. They wanted me to build weapons for them."

Everyone, save Bruce again, looked a little panicked. "Did you?" asked Steve.

"At ease soldier. No, I didn't. But they really wanted me to. At first I was all brave and noble, saying 'Never!' and stupid shit like that. Then the decided to…persuade me."

Bruce was shaking, and couldn't handle it anymore. "I'm sorry, Tony; I can't listen to this anymore."

"S'Ok, big guy, you go and cool off. I'll call you when we're done." Bruce nodded, and quickly left for the Hulk-proof lockdown room they made for when Bruce needed to let off some steam. "Ok, so where were we?"

Natasha cleared her throat. "Persuasion."

"Oh, yeah, so after I decided to be all gallant, they thought they should use outside methods of convincing me to comply. Waterboarding was their persuasion of choice." Tony shuddered at the memories that were bashing at the inside of his head. Clint, Steve, and Natasha all blanched, while Thor looked lost again. "Thor," Tony supplied, "waterboarding is where you lay a cloth over someone's nose and mouth, then pour water over their face repeatedly. It's a way of drowning someone on dry land." Tony wrapped an arm around himself and the god looked sick. "They did that to me for…days. I can't really remember. I started to get sick. Water in the lungs. Not good for the health. God knows how I didn't get pneumonia. Anyway, my chest was still attached to the battery at this point. Yinsen didn't have a lot to work with so there were bare wires sticking out of my chest, which really don't play well with water. I was crumbling. I wasn't trained for torture! I was a damn civilian! But then I came up with an idea to get us out of there. I said yes."

"What? They would have killed you even you made the damn bombs for them! You must have known that."

"Yes, Clint, I did. I said I'd build it. I lied, stupid. Anyway, they gave me all the equipment I needed, some bombs to use as a template, and time. First thing on my agenda was the Reactor. Then I made a suit."

Everyone ohhed in comprehension. "That was the Mark I, wasn't it?" asked Natasha excitedly.

"Yep. And it was a piece of crap." Tony snorted at the memory of that suit, in comparison to the one he was planning. "Still a rather impressive piece of engineering, I'll admit. So the leader of Ten Rings, Raza, his name was, demanded a due date, that we give him the missile tomorrow. So Yinsen and I stayed up all night working on it."

"We were so close to being done," Tony began to draw into himself, eyes glazing over. The team could tell he was staring at something they could not see. "So close. We were downloading the startup info into the suit, it was a slow process because they had absolute dinosaurs of computers, friggin' ancient. I was going to bust out of there, guns blazing, kill every single one of those bastards, get Yinsen, and be home for dinner. While I was sitting in the suit, waiting for it to start we could hear Raza and his goons coming for the missile we'd promised. There was no way we would have had enough time. I couldn't move, I was stuck in the suit, and Yinsen grabbed a gun, and went out there to buy time. Suicide move." Tony drew in a long shuddering breath, tears shining in his eyes, "Anyway, he did that and the suit finally powered up, so I smashed and blasted my way out of there. I found Yinsen by the mouth of the cave. He told me he wanted to die, that he wanted to see his family and that I shouldn't throw away his gift. 'Don't waste it' he said to me, 'Don't waste your life'."

"He died in my arms." Tony let a few tears slip down his face at the memory of the man who saved and changed his life. The others were looking teary, too. After a few seconds of silent respect, Tony began to talk again.

"I killed them."

The others looked at Tony. He still had tears on his face, still staring off into the distance. He shook himself back into the present. "Most of them. I was glad at least that I had gotten Raza. I thought he was dead, but the bastard got lucky. I killed as many as I could, and flew off with the survivors shooting at me, but the damn suit broke apart. I got rescued, came home, and shut down the weapons division of Stark Industries."

Steve and Clint shared shocked glances. Tony chuckled at their expressions. "Yeah, I got that a lot. A weapon's company that doesn't make weapons? What I was worried about is how a terrorist organization like Ten Rings got a hold of my tech. Turns out Obadiah Stane, closest thing I ever had to a dad, was selling them to Raza behind my back. Obie also was the one who paid Ten Rings to abduct and kill me in the first place."

Tony paused. Steve and Clint looked murderous, while Natasha looked just a little sad. She had already heard this part of the story. Thor thundered, "BETRAYAL!"

A grimace crossed Tony's face. "That's not the end of it. He gathered the scraps of the Mark I and was building his own suit. He just didn't have a power source because I had the only one in existence. Two, actually, one in my chest and one in the case." Tony gestured to the old Reactor nestled between its glass panes. "He wanted an army of Iron Men. But to do that, he needed the Arc Reactor. He came to my home in Malibu, and he—he paralyzed me, temporarily.

"He ripped the Arc Reactor out of my chest and left me to die."

Tony squeezed his eyes shut against the pain. He thought that eventually the pain of the betrayal would fade, but it was just numbed. As long as he didn't give it too much thought, it was fine, but as soon as he yanked the Band-Aid off and relived the incident, it hurt all over again.

"Well, long story short, I used the old reactor, whupped up on some Obie ass, nearly died, and saved the day. Like normal. But then I started to get sick again."

Clint groaned. "There's more?"

"Yes, feathers, I told you it was a long one. Basically, I was being poisoned by the palladium in the Reactor. I was dying."

Steve rubbed his temple. "The thing keeping you alive was poisoning you?"

"Yep, and as you might imagine it was uber fun. An absolute fucking blast. But,thanks to one Ms. Natalie Rushman," Tony shot a glance at Natasha, who snorted at her old alias, "I was able to stay alive to create a new element that my father had found. I call it Starkanium! It's actually a variant of vibranium and i just took the basic atomic structure of that and-" Tony cut himself off at the sight of eyes glazing over. "Well, that problem is solved, and I have Starkanium powered Arc Reactors now. Palladium is bad. No me gusta. So to make any new reactors now I have to use a particle accelerator, which is very difficult, and I really don't want to have to do that.

"If I was never Iron Man again, this Arc Reactor," Tony tapped the center of his chest, "would work for the rest of my life. It would actually work for about seventy lifetimes, give or take. The problem arises when I use it to power my suits. That uses up all the power in these things, and I have to change them out every so often. And they can get damaged in fights.

"Now…I think the Reactor is failing again. It's been sending this freaking intense pain all through my chest. I don't know why, or what it's doing, but I felt my heartbeat stutter last time it happened. Bruce and I are looking into it."

Steve leaned forward, "What can we do?"

"What I need from you guys is the knowledge that, if the situation arose, you would be able to help me with replacing it. Bruce can do it most of the time, but if he's feeling green neither of us want him messing around in my chest. Can you guys do that for me?"

Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Thor all looked at each other, then back at Tony. Steve answered for all of them. "What do we need to know?"

Tony smiled in relief. 

It was a good feeling, knowing people had your back.

oOo

Bruce tugged his clothes back on. He had hurriedly stripped before the Other Guy burst through his skin so he wouldn't have ruined another pair of pants. As he tucked in his blue sikl button down- this is what happens when a Stark takes you shopping- and rolled up the sleeves, JARVIS pinged on. "Dr. Banner, Sir has requested you're presence in the living room, as they are done discussing sensitive matters."

Bruce walked out of the room—cell—and said, "Thank you JARVIS. Tell Tony I'm coming."

"Very well, Dr. Banner."

oOo

Bruce walked back into the family room to a ridiculous sight. Tony was flailing about on the carpet, acting injured, and Steve had a spare Reactor, apparently trying to practice replacing it without actually removing the one in Tony's chest. Steve was flustered. All the others were yelling advice at him, and Tony was hamming it up.

"No, Steve, plug that wire in first!"

"Don't just shove it in; you have to line it up first!"

"Help, Steve, I'm dyin' here!"

"YOU ARE FAILING, CAPTAIN! ALLOW ANOTHER TO HAVE AN ATTEMPT!"

"It's been a minute, Steve, I'm hemorrhaging!"

"You're gonna kill him!"

"Choking- help- gahh!"

"STOP YELLING AT ME!"

Bruce took one look at this asinine scene in front of him, and collapsed into helpless laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, if there is any glaring grammar mistakes, please let me know. I reaaaaly don't want to have a to/two/too error on here, just because I was lazy with my proofing (I'll admit, yes I was. Stop judging me.)
> 
> Thank you all for the Subscriptions/Kudos/Bookmarks/Comments. I really appreciate every single one, and IDK if you know, but every time I get a comment, kudos, or bookmark, I get an email. THE BEST.


	5. The Woes of Bruce Banner

"But why does it have to be so damn _big_?" Tony whined. He was currently in the medical suite of Avengers Tower, and was backed into a corner by a needle wielding Bruce. Tony had his arms tightly crossed to prevent access to the veins, and was staring in terror at the Bruce's right hand.

Bruce sighed. "Come on, Tony! The great Iron Man, afraid of one needle?"

Tony gulped. "That's not a needle, bro, that's a friggin' PVC pipe! I'm not doing it!"

Bruce glared at Tony for a moment longer, and then decided to bring out the big guns. "JARVIS?" he called.

"Yes, Dr. Banner?"

"Make the call. The one we talked about earlier." Bruce had known getting some blood for testing from Tony was going to be like hauling the Hulk around on a leash, so he had already made contingency plans. The sound of a dial tone echoed on loud speaker over the room, and now Tony was worried.

"Who did you call, Banner? JARVIS, _who did he call_?!"

"I am afraid I cannot answer that question, Sir. Dr. Banner has frozen the overrides."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY AI? _WHO ARE YOU CALL-"_

' _Pepper Pots here.'_

Tony was livid. "You called Pepper? _My Pepper?"_

They could hear the sound of a long suffering sigh from the other end. _'Hello Bruce. Is he giving you trouble?'_

"As a matter of fact, Pepper, he is."

"Pepper, I am not, he's trying to stab me with a _needle_ , Pep! He's-"

' _Anthony Edward Stark.'_

Tony fell into silence immediately at redhead's tone. _'You know good and well that Bruce won't hurt you. You need these blood tests. You will give him your arm, and do it graciously. I'm still not very happy with you.'_

"What did I do now?"

' _You should have called me the moment you suspected anything was wrong. Now I'm in Hong Kong, on a business trip that will take at_ least _two weeks, for_ your company, _and you hide something like this from me?! Remember the last time you did that? You almost died!'_

Tony frowned and looked at the linoleum. He still felt guilty about hiding the palladium poisoning from her. "Sorry, Peps. You know I love you, right?"

They heard Pepper give a sigh. _'Love you too, Tony._ Please _take care of yourself.'_

"I will. Bye, Peps."

' _Bye, Tony. I'll call in a few hours."_

_Click._

Tony threw back his head with a theatrical groan, and made his way to the examination table, which he threw himself upon in a manner of great frustration. Bruce made his way over and began to prep Tony's arm with an alcohol pad. "That was a low blow, Banner." Tony continued to give Bruce the death stare, and Bruce chose to completely ignore it.

"Alright, Tony." Tony squeezed his eyes shut. "On three, OK? One…Two-"

"OUCH! What the hell happened to three?!"

Bruce quickly filled five of the little vials. "Tricked you into not tensing up. Bad thing is, that trick only works the one time." He gently pulled the needle from Tony's vein, replaced it with a cotton ball and bent Tony's arm. "See there?" He said as he wrapped pink tape around the cotton, "What was all that fuss about?"

Tony opened his eyes, and sat up, grumbling, "Stupid- doctors- pink bandages- called Pepper- asshole…."

"I think Pepper mentioned something about being gracious…"

The glare was back. "Did the wrap really have to be _pink_ , Bruce? Or are you trying to test me?"

"It's a good look for you."

Tony got up with a huff, and went to leave. "Oh, no you don't," Bruce said, "You've got to come with me to S.H.I.E.L.D medical."

"To S.H.E.I.L.D? Why?"

"You need a CT scan, and that's one of the things that you don't have in this house. It will take two hours, max. You'll be back in the lab in no time."

oOo

A few hours later, Tony slumped down on the glass wall of the elevator at Avengers Tower. He absolutely _hated_ doctor's visits, hated everything about them. It was something about lying down on a cold table with people poking and prodding that brought his Afghanistan days back with a vengeance. The trip wasn't really that bad, but it was annoying, and he was glad to be back. Also, he was _starving._

The elevator dinged, and he stepped off, only to hear the sounds of arguing from the living room. Tony identified Clint's voice, saying, "No, we watched that one last week, and besides it's a chick-flick!"

"Is not!" That was Jane. "Titanic is a historical tragedy, and besides, I do not want to see another war movie. _Saving Private Ryan_ gets old after a while."

Tony strode in to the room like he owned the place, (oh, wait…), and said, "What's the problem, kiddies?"

Steve shot Tony a look. "They can't decide on what movie to watch."

Tony hummed thoughtfully. "Well, we've done war stuff, some black-and-white for the Cap, girl movies-" (" _Is not_!") "-and some horror, so what about…" Tony looked at the screen of the TV, where JARVIS was displaying Tony's DVD collection, "fantasy? Like, um, _Chronicles of Narnia_?" The others looked at the screen dubiously, but Tony was having none of it.

"Nuh-uh, we're supposed to be exposing Point-Break and Capsicle to all genres. Besides, I grew up on these books. The movies aren't half bad either." Slightly mollified, the others turned back to the TV as JARVIS darkened the room and the opening credits rolled.

Half a bowl of popcorn later, everyone seemed to be getting into it. Even Thor, from his customary place with Jane on some pillows on the floor, was enjoying it, after being explained to what cricket was. Steve liked it because it was from his era; he could relate to this war, and to the feeling of being left behind.

Tony began to realize that something was wrong with Thor not much later. After Edmund began to lie about Lucy and his visit through the wardrobe, Thor's muscled shoulders tensed. As the movie continued, he got more and more worked up. Finally, when Edmund went to the Ice Palace, and betrayed his family, Thor stood up suddenly, and all but ran from the room.

All the pieces of Thor's behavior clicked in Tony's genius brain, and suddenly he didn't feel like such a genius. _Ohh, bad choice, Tony. God, for a genius, I'm really stupid._ Jane made to get up and follow her boyfriend out of the room, but Tony waved her down. "Nah, stay here, I got this."

She reluctantly returned to her place on the floor, and Tony just barely heard Natasha say "What was that about?" before he turned a corner.

"JARVIS, where's Thunderpants?"

"If you mean Thor, Sir, he is currently on the roof."

Tony made a quick detour into the kitchen and shouted, "Thanks, JARV!" over his shoulder.

oOo

"Hey Point-Break."

Thor looked back over his shoulder at Tony, who was stepping off of the elevator onto the roof, then back at the sunset over the Manhattan skyline. With the city silhouetted by the dying sun, you could barely see the scars left by the Chitauri incident. Thor sighed. "Hello, Tony."

Tony sat down next to Thor with a groan. For a moment they just looked over the city, but then Tony reached behind him and grabbed something  he knew would cheer Thor up. 

"Want a Pop-Tart? I haven't really eaten all day, except that popcorn, so I snagged us a box. Here" Thor felt the corners of his mouth lift a little at the little foil-wrapped package that Tony proffered. "Come on, Goldie, take the Pop-Tart."

Thor took it, and took a bite (strawberry, his favorite) and chewed slowly before asking, "I feel this was not the only reason you joined my here, my friend."

Tony looked at the god sitting next to him. Bathed in gold and orange from the sinking sun, Thor looked like a statue cast in bronze. "I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about why you tore out of there like that. Sorry about that movie by the way."

Thor looked at Tony sharply "How did you know?"

"I took a guess."

They spent a few more moments in easy silence before Tony continued. "It's Loki isn't it?"

Another sigh. "Yes. My thoughts are often with my brother."

Before Tony could respond, Thor flung the rest of his food out over Manhattan. "This Edmund betrayed his family, he hurt them greatly, and for what, an Ice Witch he just met? Bah!"

Tony shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. Or, maybe he was jealous of his brother. Either way, he was an idiot. But you know what? I'm going to break a personal rule and give you a spoiler. _Edmund comes back_. In the end, he sees what's right, and helps fix what he did wrong. I mean, he can't ever undo it, but his brother welcomes him back with open arms."

As Tony spoke, he looked at Thor, _really_ looked. Usually he couldn't see past the language and idiosyncrasies, but Thor was a Prince. A friggin' _Prince_! And a _god!_ The pressure that Thor was under suddenly showed on his face, and for a moment, he looked old. Tony knew he was old, but it was a little different knowing something, and seeing it. So many years that had not weathered his face weighed his eyes down. They held hundreds of years of responsibility and fighting, and Tony found a new respect for his fellow Avenger in this moment. People underestimated Thor all the time, and he just took it with a smile.

Thor rested his head in his hands. "When last I went home, I went to visit Loki in the dungeons under the citadel. He did not speak to me, even when I pleaded with him. He looked through me, as if I were not there. The only reaction I got was when I called him 'Brother,' and then he just glared at me. No words from the Silvertounge. And when I questioned the guards, they told me he hasn't spoken since his sentencing, which was months ago! I love him dearly, but he betrayed me and mine in the worst ways."

After a short moment of deliberation, Tony awkwardly rested a hand on the prince's broad shoulder. "Hey, bro, if anyone knows about family pulling some crap, it's me. Remember when I told you someone stole my Arc Reactor?" He tapped the glass that shone through his shirt, and Thor nodded. "Well, that man was Obidiah Stane, my godfather, and the father that Howard Stark never was. He practically raised me."

Thor took his head from his hands and said, "I still cannot believe he tried to kill you. Like L-loki…tried to kill me."

As the sun finished its decent below the horizon, leaving the darkening sky smudged in reds and purples, Tony agreed. "Sucks. I know. But listen." He punched Thor on the shoulder, "You've got Jane sitting in there. You've got Steve, and Tasha, and Bruce, and Clint. Fury likes you too. Hell, you've got me, and I'm better than a dozen brothers, yeah?"

Thor smiled and rolled his eyes at the arrogant man sitting next to him. "You come close. Thank you, Tony." They stood, and picked up the remaining Pop-Tarts that had lay forgotten.

"Any time, Princess. And you know what? Between you and me, I think you're going to make a great king one day."

Something tight and hot swelled in Thor's chest at these words. "I appreciate that, my friend. When I-"

But Tony didn't hear the rest of Thor's words as a lance of pain stabbed through his chest, bright and sharp. He couldn't breathe, and every beat of his heart was painful. 

 

Thor grabbed at Tony's shoulders as he clutched at his chest and nearly fell. "Are you well, my friend? Perhaps we should-" His eyes widened at the sight of the Arc Reactor flickering from underneath Tony's shirt. 

"No! No, I'm fine, its just-" Tony gasped for air, and then continued, "I'm fine. Gimme a sec."

 

When Tony caught his breath, he said, "I don't like this. No, I freaking hate it. I can't fight like this! What the hell am I going to do if this happens next time Fury needs us? I don't—I _won't_ —be a liability to the team!"

Thor's face tightened. "Look at me, Tony." The billionaire reluctantly met his eyes. "You are a skilled warrior, and are important to us. We cannot wage war with you wallowing in misery and self-doubt."

Tony deliberated for a second, then flashed Thor his Paparazzi grin. "Thanks, Point-Break." He slung an arm around Thor's shoulders and they made their way inside.

"Come on, time to watch the rest of that movie. Don't judge me, but I love it, and you're going to _love_ Aslan."

"I must ask, why do you refer to me as Point-Break?"

"Oh, that's right. We got to watch another movie tonight."

oOo

Bruce scrubbed at his tired eyes, and looked back at the computer screen. The customized touch screen Stark band computer displayed the results of Tony's CT scan. The radiologists at S.H.E.I.L.D. were thoroughly unnerved by the scan, and the doctors could make neither heads nor tails of it. Really, there was nothing wrong with him. Other than the huge circle of metal extending at least three and a half inches down into his chest cavity, wires reaching around all the veins and arteries, and large pieces of twisted metal shoved into the soft tissue of his chest, Tony seemed to be in okay shape. Well, as close to okay as he could get. 

The first time Bruce tried to look at the scans, he came _that close_ to having a Hulk-out, because he could really see how much damage had been done to Tony. Bruce shoved those thoughts aside and continued to scour the scans. His chest showed tons of internal scar tissue, which might cause a few problems with is respiration, and some pieces of shrapnel that were a bit too close to Tony's heart and aorta for comfort, but there was nothing— _nothing—_ that should be causing the type of pain that Tony was experiencing.

Bruce went down his mental list of possible causes, eliminating them as he went on, but the theories were getting wilder, and they started making less sense as he continue. He gripped his hair in his hands, and felt the familiar rage being to bubble up from deep inside him. _Tony needs me to help him_ , Bruce thought, _Why can't I do this for him? Why can't I help him?_ His limbs shuddered and he quickly clamped down on himself before he destroyed the entire floor.

_I just need to look harder._ The scientist ran a hand through his hair. _I_ will _help Tony. I_ will _fix this._ He quickly gathered up all of the papers scattered out before him, and shut down the files on the computer screen. As all the windows began to close, he finally noticed the time. 6:13 A.M., the screen displayed. _I've been here all night. Huh. Well, Tony, don't say I never did anything for you._

Bruce quickly contemplated going to bed, but then shot that idea down. He was normally up by seven thirty anyway, and they he had a meeting with one of Fury's scientists at noon, so he couldn't just sleep the day away. Besides, Steve would have been up for a while already, and would be returning from his morning run soon. That soldier was as regular as clockwork, something Bruce appreciated.

He stood up and stretched like a cat, the vertebrae in his back popping like bubble wrap. The need for a good strong cup of coffee was making itself known, so he got onto the elevator, rubbing his bloodshot eyes with one hand, clutching papers with his other. The chairs in the kitchen were beaconing for him to sit and relax, but he knew he couldn't. The way he felt, if he sat down for just a minute, he would be completely out, and no one dared to wake him up, because he could get grumpy if awoken, and he had that _damn meeting_ … So he decided on making breakfast for Steve and himself. Maybe the smells of 'waking-up food' would trick his brain into being more awake. Yeah. Doubt it.

Bruce was just sliding the second of two fluffy omelets onto a plate when Steve came in, hair slightly damp from his shower. "Good morning, Bruce. This for me?" he asked, gesturing at the second place setting, with bacon, toast, orange juice, and now an omelet.

"Yeah. Thought you might be hungry."

Steve shot him a grateful smile, and dug in with gusto. Bruce picked absentmindedly at his toast as he pecked away on the StarkPad that displayed the CT scan. Steve saw this, and saw Bruce's bloodshot, red rimmed eyes, with dark bags, and said, "So was staying up all night worth it?"

Bruce quickly looked at Steve, and then chuckled humorlessly at himself. "I look that bad, huh?"

"You don't look _bad_ , just tired. You aren't going to help Tony by running yourself into the ground."

Bruce ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up and adding to his overall rumpled appearance. "I know, I just…there is nothing here! Nothing that could be causing his symptoms." Bruce scattered the papers on the table in frustration.

Steve took a moment to judge the extent of Bruce's bad mood, and then asked in a soothing sort of tone, "What are his symptoms?"

"Headache, fatigue, though that could be from not sleeping for seventy two hours, low blood pressure, vertigo- probably caused from the blood pressure issue-, and a sporadic pain in his chest. Tony said it feels like electric burns."

A crease appeared in Steve's forehead. "I don't know… you'll think of something. I know you will." He leaned forward to look at the papers. "May I?"

"Of course, Steve. It might be a good thing to have a fresh, unbiased set of eyes."

Bruce began to eat with more energy as Steve picked up a printout of Tony's ECG. Apparently, JARVIS could monitor it whenever Tony was in the Tower. Steve looked at the rhythmic peaks and valleys, tracing them with his finger. "Tell me, Bruce, is Tony going to be good for a fight?"

Bruce looked up from his eggs. "How do you mean?"

"What happens if Tony has an attack while we're on a call from S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"I don't know," Bruce stated, "He could be fine. Or he could fall from the sky. There's no real way of predicting how bad an attack is going to be, and he was just lucky that the Other Guy was in a good mood the last time he took a dive."

Steve grimaced at the memory of Tony plummeting to the hard concrete. Then he noticed something…strange in the paper in front of him. "Hey, what exactly are these things supposed to look like? How many peaks?"

"There's supposed to be three for each heartbeat. A little one, the big one in the middle, and another little one."

Steve heart began to speed up as he looked at all the little squiggles. "And when was Tony's last attack? Did he have one at…" Steve checked the timestamp below the markings, "Seven twenty-three?"

Bruce leaned in at hearing Steve's tone. "What is it? What did you see?"

"Like I said, I'm no doctor, but here," he pointed to the time, "there are only two peaks. The first little one is missing."

Bruce paled and snatched the printouts back, matching all of the times of the attacks to missing or abnormal P-waves. "How could I have missed that?"

"What is it? Do you know what's wrong with him?"

"I think so…if I'm right, then-"

Just as he was going to reveal his suspicions, JARVIS could be heard over the intercom system. "CODE RED. AVENGERS ASSEMBLE."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mwahaha! Evil cliffie is evil!  
> Sorry bros. Had to be done.  
> If you think this cliffhanger is bad, I cannot wait for you to see the other ones I have in store!  
> By the way, have any of you listened to podfics by Kerravon? They are fantastic. And the story "Iron Man, Yes, Tony Stark....Not Recommended," is probably the most perfect thing I have ever seen in my life.  
> There's fanfic. Of that fanfic.  
> Boom.


	6. Captian in a Battlefield

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some demons from Tony's past come back to haunt him, Baddie-Of-The-Week is melodramatic, and Steve is a BAMF.

Bruce and Steve's heads snapped up at the ceiling at JARVIS's announcement. They stared for a second, then locked eyes and shot from their chairs, scrambling for equipment and the rest of the team. As he raced down to his suite, Bruce could see Clint jumping out of his room, still in his pajamas, but already completely alert and ready for combat.

A few minutes later, they were all in full gear in a meeting room with Fury, and a semi-awake Tony was bitching for all to hear. "Why for God's sake can't the bad guy wait for a more _normal_ time to beat the crap out of us?" He groaned and tossed back the rest of his coffee. Fury ignored that comment and snapped "Feet off my table, Stark, and pay attention. Alright, here's what we got. We've dealt with him before, he's a jackass named Hammer."

Tony choked on his coffee, spitting it everywhere, and tipped his chair back, landing in a sprawl on the floor. "Hammer?! Like _Justin_ Hammer?"

Fury tipped his head in Tony's direction, who was struggling into an upright position and trying to maintain as much dignity as possible. Natasha spoke up. "I thought we had him locked up."

Fury's face tightened. "We did. The man has connections, and _some people_ higher up thought that this guy was being led by Vanko, and that he didn't know what the drones were gonna do."

"Um, with all respect, Director, I'm calling bullshit on that one," Clint said, his features closed and his eyes sharp and hooded. Mission mode.

"I know," said the Director his one good eye flashing, "I'm going to have some words with people when we're done here."

Steve steepled his fingers under his chin. "So what's he doing now?"

Fury sighed and rested his hands on a bulging file in front of him. All the eyes in the room zeroed in on it. "Agent Romanov. You know what's in this file. I bet you can guess what I'm gonna say. Do you think Stark can handle this?" Tony's eyes locked with Natasha's, as she suddenly seemed uncomfortable.

"Director, I really don't think I sh-"

"Can he handle it, Agent?"

"Can I handle _what_ , exactly?" Tony blurted, confused and irritated.

Natasha sighed. "Yes. I think so."

"Well good. Stark, this is against my better judgment, but…you're in on this one." Fury looked at Tony's face for a moment, then, apparently done with his examination, shoved the file to the center of the table. "He's partnered with a terrorist organization cell called the Ten Rings." Every head in the room swiveled to look at Tony, who blanched.

_Flash._ Bag on his head, facing a camera. _Flash._ Struggling to breathe, water pouring over his head _. Flash_. Working quickly, praying the captors not come, not yet. _Flash_. Chest erupting in agony. _Flash_. Hot ember coming to Yinsen's face. _Flash_. Heat exhausting him _. Flash_. Buckets of water. _Flash_. Car battery _. Flash_. Bomb _. Flash._ Suit. _Flash_. Water. _Flash_. Screams. _Flash._ Yinsen. _Flash._ Pain. _Flash_ Yinsen. _Flash._ Yinsen! _Flash_. YINSEN!

He gasped, suddenly realizing that his team was staring at him. Steve had apparently called his name a few times, and worry was stamped across his features. Steve spoke again. "You OK, there, Tony?"

"No, I mean, yeah, I'm fine, fine. So, uh, Ten Rings huh? Thought those guys got put down."

"We did too." Fury said, "But apparently you only knocked out one of the Rings. Raza was not the head honcho."

Tony rubbed his temples. "And now Hammer's working for them. Fan-freakin'-tastic. At least their tech will be shit."

"You're telling me. For those of you not in the know here, Hammer once worked with Ivan Vanko, who helped him make these Hammer Drones. Now," Fury hit a remote, and the screen behind him came to life, with a video of a battalion of the robots flying, "Hammer has given Vanko's design to the Ten Rings who want to use them for an attack on the city. They're about an hour out, still over the Atlantic."

Steve went into Captain America mode. "How many?"

"Couple hundred, give or take." Fury paused again, considering how much to say in front of Tony. "The Ten Rings most certainly is making this an act of terrorism, but for Hammer, it seems a bit personal. He wants to hurt you, Stark. And he isn't too picky about how he goes about doin' that. He sent this along to us."

Fury pressed another button on the remote, and the screen switched to a picture of Hammer in a suit and a manic grin. "You think you can just lock _me_ up, Stark? Well think again. I'm coming for YOU!" He pointed at the screen and laughed, and the video flickered and died.

Natasha snorted. "I see melodramatic villain wanna-be's like that on a daily basis."

"Wanna-be or not, he's got an arsenal of drones based off of Stark's original suit design. We might want to take him a bit more seriously, Agent Romanoff."

Tony's brow was creased in thought. "Has Hammer made any improvements to the design?"

"From the footage, it doesn't seem so."

The inventor's face grew dark, a small predatory smile just lifted the corners of his lips. "Good. That means I know all the major weaknesses that these tin cans have. And maybe he's been a bit tied up in the Penitentiary, but I have made quite a few changes since the Mark IV. I'm actually on the Mark VII. So bring it on, Hammer."

oOo

A little over an hour later, no one had time to appreciate Tony's (admittedly impressive) new suit. These drones, while relatively easy to pick off, were starting to overwhelm them with the sheer numbers. Steve looked up during a momentary lull to see a Hot-Rod-Red blur shooting blasts, and taking down swaths of the drones. He wiped sweat from his eyes and then slung his shield at an oncoming drone, hitting it across the joints at the waist. Tony's information was good, and the drone broke in half at the blow to one of its major weak spots. Snatching the shield back, turned to block a barrage of bullets from another drone that came up behind him, which ricocheted off the vibranium to blow holes in the drone that just shot them. He ducked and swept his feet under the heels of another drone, flipped it over, and ripped out the wiring from the back of its neck in one fluid motion. The thing jerked, stuttered, and fell still.

On and on they fought. Steve was able to catch glimpses of Natasha, jumping and flipping, the Widow's Bites leaving broken machinery strewn in her wake. Clint was up on a rooftop with arrows sent buzzing so fast from his bow, that he didn't seem to be taking aim at all, but Steve knew much better. A giant green mass roared out to the left. _There's Banner_ , he thought, and took down another drone.

"Captain!" A booming voice grabbed his attention, and he spun, only to jump out of the way as the drone that had come from behind him shot a rocket in his direction. Thor jumped in and crushed the drones head in with a decisive stroke from his hammer. The offending drone crumpled dead at his feet.

"Thanks, Thor," Steve gasped. Thor clapped him on the shoulder, and ran off swinging Mjolnir from a hand, then flew off in a blast of lighting.

The battle soon became one long blur to him. The world narrowed to the robot in front of him, his shield, and occasionally his teammates. In the beginning, there was a plan, something about containment and evacuation zones, but that all went south as soon as the fleet of Hammer Drones arrived.

A time later—Steve had no idea if it was minutes, or hours, or days—the last of the drones lay broken and scattered across the streets and sidewalks. He took a moment to catch his breath, and take inventory of his wounds. _Ribs-bruised, maybe one broken. Left shoulder-_ he rolled the offending joint, and pain lashed through him, _ok none of that. Maybe something torn. A few burns. Some superficial cuts. Bullet graze on the right thigh._

Now he looked around for his team. "Avengers, come in. Hawkeye, you copy?"

" _Copy that, Captain. No sign of any more bots this way and no major injuries. I'm located a few blocks away from your position."_

"Good. Widow?"

" _All clear, Captain. I'm fine, but there are a few civilians here, they need medical."_

"Iron Man, have JARVIS tell Fury."

" _Will do, Cap. I'm fine, thanks for asking."_

"Shut up, Stark. Thor, you there?"

" _I am here, Captain Rogers. All is well, and we are victorious."_

"Good. Do any of you have a visual on the Hulk?"

Tony piped up again, _"Um…I'm circling back; I think I saw him passed out in geeky doctor form a few minutes ago. I'll let you know."_

"Thanks, Stark. No one has major injuries?" The team chorused negatives on the coms.

" _Oh, lookey there, Bruce in all his naked, skinny self. Anyone got some extra sweatpants?"_

"Does he look OK, Stark?" Steve asked exasperatedly. Normally he could deal with Tony, but he was tired and his temper was short.

" _Looks fine from here, aside from the post-Hulk-bender unconsciousness._ "

Steve gave a sigh of relief. The battle was won, there were minimal casualties, and his team was safe. He began to pick through the rubble to the just-landed quin-jet, when the fragile peace was shattered.

Shattered by a scream of agony that came tearing through the coms.

Steve's heart stopped dead.

"TONY?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short; yes I know. Cliffie; I'm a terrible person. My leave of absence; unforgivable.  
> Life really gets in the way when I'm trying to, you know, be productive and pay the bills (being an adult is the worst and I hate it.)  
> So I haven't had any time nor motivation to continue lately.  
> If any of y'all wouldn't mind giving me some comments about what you did/didn't like out of this chapter, I would be much obliged. Also, the basic thoughts for the rest of the story are plotted out, but I always have wiggle room. If you want me to toss anything in there, just let me know. I haven't turned down an request yet!  
> You Know You Wanna Be Kate!


End file.
